It was a week after the Festival of African Arts and Culture (FESTAC 77), 1000 Soldiers reportedly descended upon the Kalakuta Republic which was then at 14a, Agege Motor Road Lagos. It was a horrific story of “sorrow, tears and blood”.
Fela’s aged mother, the renowned women’s rights activist and the first woman to drive a car in Nigeria and in Africa, Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was thrown out from the window and later died of her injuries.
No-one was prosecuted for the carnage. The ‘Unknown Soldier’ still remains ‘Unknown’ till this day. The “Zombies” as Fela called them were also at the Lekki Toll gate on October 20, 2020 where they drilled bullets into innocent souls.
HistoryLand
Will it ever end?
Photo: Bimbola Babarinde
